(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a color photographic material, particularly to the prevention of fading and discoloring of the dye image eventually obtained by developing a color photographic material, and more particularly to a dibenzospiroindane type fading preventive agent.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Generally, a dye image obtained by subjecting a silver halide color photographic material to photographic processing is made up of an azomethine dye or an indoaniline dye formed by a reaction of a coupler with the oxidation product of an aromatic primary amine developing agent. The color photographic images obtained in this manner are not necessarily stable to light and moist heat, and when the color photographic images are exposed to light for a prolonged period of time or are preserved under high temperatures and high humidities, the dye images may be faded or discolored, resulting in deterioration of the image quality.
Such fading of images is an almost fatal disadvantage to recording materials. In order to obviate this disadvantage, there have been made such proposals that a coupler low in fading is used, a fading preventive agent for preventing fading due to light is used, and an ultraviolet absorbing agent for preventing the images from being deteriorated by ultraviolet light is used.
Among others, the image deterioration preventive effect by fading preventive agents is great, and as examples of such agents are known hydroquinones, hindered phenols, tocopherols, chromans, coumarans, compounds obtained by etherifying the phenolic hydroxyl group of these compounds (e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,935,016, 3,700,455, 3,764,337, 3,432,300, 3,573,050, and 4,254,216, British Pat. No. 2,066,975, etc.).
Although it is recognized that these compounds have an effect as an agent for preventing dye images from fading or discoloring, they are not satisfactory to meet the demand of customers who are now seeking high image quality, and cannot exhibit an excellent effect as a whole for color photography since they change the hue, or cause fogging, or cause defective dispersion.
On the other hand, the inventors found that compounds having a dibenzospiroindane structure exhibit an excellent effect for preventing images from being deteriorated and proposed their use for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,360,589 and 4,416,978, British Pat. No. 2,135,788A, Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 204035/1982, 204037/1982 and 6652/1986.
However, techniques have progressively developed and accordingly demand for the stability of images have further increased. Thus, the above techniques are now unsatisfactory and further improvement is expected.